Mitchell: I'm Excited To Be Part Of A Special Group

New Dolphins defensive tackle Earl Mitchell meets with reporters in Davie and discusses why the Dolphins are a good fit for his skills.

Dolphins General Manager Dennis Hickey introduction – “Once again, this is an exciting time for a General Manager to keep adding new pieces. Again, what we talked about before, you know, daily Coach Philbin and I and Dawn Aponte are daily talking about our 53-man roster and trying to build the best 53-man roster. As we do our free agent evaluations one player just kept standing out as we did, as we evaluated and just what he would bring to the table and bring to our team. The passion. The love of football. A talented player that was very productive. A young player that was on the rise and we felt like we had great things ahead of him and that’s what we saw when we evaluated Earl Mitchell and as we got to know him better, fortunately we had a coach on our staff, John Benton, our new offensive line coach that had been with Earl and as he talked about Earl, Earl was about all the things that we’re about. A passion for the game. A love of the game and extremely hard working. A productive player that is talented and will continue to grow into the player that we envision. We are very excited today to announce that we’re adding Earl Mitchell to the Miami Dolphins and again it’s been enjoyable. As I talked about Branden just spending some time with Earl last night and through this process, you can see the makeup of the person and what he’s about and about the right things and we’re just excited to have him as a member of the Miami Dolphins and with that I introduce Earl Mitchell.”

Earl Mitchell:

(On what the selling point was to sign with this team) – “Well the biggest thing for me, you know, the team, they expressed their interest in me and that definitely raised my interest and I definitely wanted to be a part of a 4-3 team so I’m definitely…I’m excited and I really appreciate getting involved with this organization for giving me an opportunity.”

(On why he wants to be part of a 4-3 team) – “Well you know I think it will definitely give me an opportunity to showcase my skill and just it will definitely be a just time where I can definitely just be able to make more plays and be part of a, just getting after the quarterback and I’m just trying to just showcase the things that I’ve learned within the schemes that I’ve been in and I played in both games and I think it will be really good to just show what I’ve learned throughout the years.”

(On if he thinks he’s continuing to get better) – “Definitely. I feel like I’ve progressed. Since I’ve stepped on the field and I definitely learned a lot about defense. I know a lot of guys don’t know about me, but I originally played offense and once I moved over to defense it was definitely an adjustment period but I feel like I’ve gotten better and better and ever since I stepped into the position of playing defense.”

(On when that was) – “I played, I was on offense my first two years in college and I played defensive tackle in my junior and senior year and just playing nose tackle has been new to me for the past three years. At Arizona 4-3.”

(On his thoughts on player with Cameron Wake and Olivier Vernon) – “Those guys have been productive for this team and I think it’s going to be really nice to just learn a lot from them. I played with some great guys in Houston and I appreciate the other things that I learned from them and I’m definitely excited to be part of a special group and I know them and Jared Odrick and Cameron Wake. I know they’re more than capable of getting to the quarterback and I’m just trying to be a part of their success.”

(On if it was Miami all along) – “Miami was definitely the front runner. They expressed strong interest in me and so I was definitely really interested in what they were bringing to me and I was definitely going to just take advantage of what they were going to do.”

(On how he would describe himself as a player) – “I’m extremely passionate . I love this game. That’s why I’m here. I’m here to work and I’m coming to produce and I’m definitely trying to help this team reach new heights. That’s really my reason for being here and I want to work. I want to play and at the end of the day I’m trying to get us to a Super Bowl. That’s all my focus and that’s my objective and that’s the only reason why I play this game.”

(On if likes the title run stopper) – “I play football man. My thing is, I’m just trying to play as hard as I can and you know if that gets categorized as that, you know, then so be it but at the end of the day I’m trying to make tackles. I’m trying to make plays and that’s something that I want to be known as. A playmaker.”

(On getting after the quarterback) – “Definitely. I mean I’ve had a bunch of hurries and I’ve had a bunch of opportunities to actually take them down before he had gotten rid of the ball. So I’m getting better and I’ve definitely learned a lot and I’m definitely trying to make sure I showcase that talent.”